Professional Boat Reviews- Is it me?

[Steve W]

Of course they give great reviews: they get to sail or bareboat charter the best the manufacturer or charter company has to offer in great locations for maybe travel costs. What's not to like? I place monthly full page ads in a trade magazine and part of the "deal" is they write 4-5 articles a year that feature our machinery (and other advertisers) at plants around the world. It not in the contract, it just always "happens".

[Efraim]

If your serious about a boat, you can always hire Bob Perry to give you and unbiased review, he does offer consulting services.

[colemj]

Originally Posted by nimblemotors

I've noticed at least one that will not let you read their msgs or join unless you give them your hull number. Trying to hide their defects so buyers can't see!
If you find this type of owners group, run away from that boat!

Many of those groups are operated and populated by people out cruising and they cannot spend the time sifting spam and moderating threads. The easy answer is to limit the group to owners only.

I belong to one such group. The above is the reason the group is closed to non-owners - not because we are all hiding our boats defects. The broader website is open to everyone for information.

How many of the same questions are asked in this site's forums over and over and over? How much moderation is required when things start to go sideways?

Anyone who wants to know the pros and cons of our boat only needs to do a search here, and/or just ask.

Mark

[nimblemotors]

Originally Posted by colemj

Many of those groups are operated and populated by people out cruising and they cannot spend the time sifting spam and moderating threads. The easy answer is to limit the group to owners only.

I belong to one such group. The above is the reason the group is closed to non-owners - not because we are all hiding our boats defects. The broader website is open to everyone for information.

How many of the same questions are asked in this site's forums over and over and over? How much moderation is required when things start to go sideways?

Anyone who wants to know the pros and cons of our boat only needs to do a search here, and/or just ask.

Mark

I would agree if posting questions required a hull number, but just reading the posts? Can't let people do that? Tell your group they are making their boats worth much less with their actions.

[colemj]

Originally Posted by nimblemotors

Tell your group they are making their boats worth much less with their actions.

We have never had that problem. Besides, you can't have the point of your argument go both ways - increasing the value of the boat by hiding problems from the general public while decreasing the value of the boat by hiding problems from the general public.

Mark

[nimblemotors]

Originally Posted by colemj

We have never had that problem. Besides, you can't have the point of your argument go both ways - increasing the value of the boat by hiding problems from the general public while decreasing the value of the boat by hiding problems from the general public.

Mark

okay, so which is it? Are you hiding problems, or just decreasing value by hiding information?

[SailFastTri]

Here is one review I wrote a few years ago. Unbiased pros and cons, but I only had a week with that boat. Owners of that boat would have more info or might disagree.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...tml#post297991

[valhalla360]

As with everything in life, you have to read between the lines.

As far as owners groups, take those with a big grain of salt. Threads that say, I took a nice sail today on moderate conditions and the boat was comfortable and fast usually die quickly. There's simply no meat to get into a discussion over. Threads that address problems tend to go on and on. If you read thru without thinking about it, it can seem like the boat is a dog, when you are simply seeing more posts about a small number of problems skewing your view of the boat.

[Factor]

Originally Posted by Efraim

If your serious about a boat, you can always hire Bob Perry to give you and unbiased review, he does offer consulting services.

No disrespect to mr perry. But I would think using a designer or surveyor with demonstrable success record in drawing excellent multis would be the go. If I was in the US I would consider using chris white.

[mogget4]

I don't have a boat, but have been extensively engaged in the search and research process for months.

I agree with the overall theme that the reviews are so toadying that they're nearly worthless. I have found Zuzana Prochazka's reviews on Boats.com to be a bit better than the rest. I also think Practical Sailor does fairly impartial reviews, but they seem like a small shop and don't review very many boats. Here is an example of Zuzana's review:

Leopard 44: New Cruising Catamaran, New Ideas - Features, Boat Reviews and Boat Tests - Boats.com

I have also found that every used boat we've looked at has two unwavering "facts" about it as relayed to us by brokers: the previous owner took wonderful care of the boat, and the previous owner is selling to upgrade to a bigger boat of the same kind. It is simply amazing to find such uniformity in previous owners!

[sailorboy1]

Maybe there isn't a lot not to like about nice new boats! The "cons" are mostly small things

For used boats owners are the way to go

There there is asking forums like CF, but if you already did your research you will already know how that will go for the boat

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by Factor

No disrespect to mr perry. But I would think using a designer or surveyor with demonstrable success record in drawing excellent multis would be the go. If I was in the US I would consider using chris white.

This is why you can't rely on a single source.

While, Chris White is very knowledgable on multihull design. His design approach is not consistent with my cruising approach. Having read a couple of his books while in the buying process, his idea of a perfect boat and my idea are dramatically different.

[PamlicoTraveler]

I remember when Tartan was having all kinds of quality issues and the bad guys were pulling financial shenanigans, the reviews were glowing with nary a word said about any of the problems. A potential buyer wouldn't have a clue from reading the reviews.

It's always interesting to me to go to the advertisers list in the back of a magazine after the Boat of the Year awards and note how many ads those companies have.

The business model is somewhat flawed, but I still read the magazines for the other things they have.

[Charter Cat]

Part of the problem is that in the Internet era, we are used to that good information is free, even if the source has a cost in obtaining the information.

But sources needs to get revenue, so with lack of expected revenue from the readers, they will have to finance their operation from adverisers.

[Group9]

It is funny to read the reviews and see the criticisms as:

1. The cushions should be in a different color.
2. The good times radio buttons are hard to operate.
3. The anchor it comes with is too small.